The gentlemen of the Management Committee all knew just how well the steam paddle wheel ships from France's Brest Shipyard were selling.
On the Rhine-Danube route, thirty percent of the vessels were now this type of ship—a feat achieved in less than two years. The remaining seventy percent of galleys had taken decades to accumulate.
Steam paddle wheel ships could be seen everywhere on the Mediterranean Sea as well. Though their share was not as high as in river transport, the Mediterranean's enormous trade volume meant their absolute numbers were even greater.
Under the squeeze of steamships, freight rates for old-fashioned galleys kept falling. It was foreseeable that, in no more than a decade or two, steamships would completely dominate the inland waterway shipping market.
Such an enormous market had already been seized first by the French. The United Kingdom had to catch up as quickly as possible.
What moved the Management Committee most was Chatham Shipyard's promise that, within two years, its steam paddle wheel ships would sell for fifteen percent less than French goods of the same class.
In other words, they would then seize the entire inland waterway shipping market!
Even by the most conservative estimate, that would bring in 200,000 Pounds Sterling in profit every year.
Of course, the promise that their costs would be drastically lower than French goods within two years had been something Frank had strongly urged Harper to include—he guaranteed that by then, he could slash the price of steam engines supplied to the shipyard by forty percent.
Well, after presiding over Watt Steam Engine Company's sales operations for a year and a half, this agent had thoroughly grasped the true essence of blowing smoke. In any case, he would surely return home two years later. What did it have to do